MANCHESTER School of Art graduate Bartosz Beda is celebrating after winning the northern section of the national art prize at National Open Art Competition.

Bartosz, who graduated with a Masters in Fine Art this summer, beat off competition from hundreds of entries to win the £1,000 prize with a portrait of the Indian leader Ghandi painted from memory.

He said that winning the prize was both “exhausting and exciting”.

“The painting is not really a direct representation of Gandhi; I was more interested in the idea of a portrait from memory and finding the concepts behind the painting,” he said. “So colour is the most important thing.”

Inspired by industry

Bartosz, who was also shortlisted for the Saatchi New Sensations prize is currently spending six months studying at the Academy of Arts in Dresden, after receiving a scholarship. But he says it was his time spent at the Manchester School of Art which allowed his creative talents to blossom.

“When I came to Manchester I began to love the city because of the industrial feeling of the landscape and the people, who are very focussed on industry, but at the same time the city has an artistic life – it is a very different experience to Dresden,”he said.

Now 28, Bartosz says he was just seven years old when he told his mum he wanted to be an artist when he grew up. Six years ago he started to concentrate on painting, and particularly the ways in which this traditional medium can be made relevant.

“I would be silly to say there is no tradition – the tradition is every painter,” he says. “The problem is what we can do with it to make it more contemporary and fresh for the viewer.”

(detail) accompanies the show of the same name curated by Andrew Bracey at Transition Gallery (and at H Project Space, Bangkok and The Usher Gallery, Lincoln). Produced by Transition Editions this 172 page publication includes images from all 118 artists and essays by Andrew Bracey, Simón Granell, Brian Curtin, James Elkins and David Ryan.

By Anna NiebruggePublished by Expose
Currently, it is up at Bogotá Arte Contemporáneo Gallery of Bogotá, Columbia, where it will be available for viewing until January 9th, 2015th. The space is large and comfortably filled with the paintings of Bartisz Beda. The show consists of an impressive 53 artworks and 2 videos. The way that the paintings are placed around the gallery feels very intentional. Some are raised higher on the walls and some lower; a few so low that the viewer must look down on or even bend down, which creates an interesting interaction with the work. The result is a show that pulls the viewer in, creating an engaging and thought-provoking experience.
Beda’s work is composed of built-up paint and carefully rendered faces or objects which are intentionally marred and fragmented. The surfaces he paints on changes for each piece, from paper to canvas to sheet metal; it depends on the painting. His medium of choice is oil paint. Working wet on wet, he allows the paint to mix on the surface and build up very thick in some places, while allowing the surface to peek through in others. The subject matter is both representational and abstracted; first the subject is painted and then parts are removed or altered. The subject matter uses historical, biblical, and well-known people, religious objects, and his own likeness to explore ideas of human expression, feelings, and self. In the center of the room is a sculptural display of thirty small paintings, cascading down a pillar. It is a collection of marks made while Beda was working on this show. The installation speaks about reuse and recycling and the idea of putting effort into keeping the earth clean. The paintings along the walls are set in groups, each group illustrates a concept the Beda works with. In the painting Heal Thyself I Beda uses the image of a dictionary and St. Peter to explore the human intentions: its transformations and subsequent fears .The artist, Bartosz Beda is originally from Lodz, Poland. He earned his BA and MFA in the United Kingdom and has spent six months in Germany with a scholarship residency, dedicated to developing his artwork. Beda currently lives in the United States where he is continuing to push and explore his ideas with his paintings.www.bogotartecontemporaneo.com

Hypostasis is the idea of opposed values in the evaluated society and the concept used by intellectual and religious culture. The word ‘Hypostasis’ has a metaphorical sense, which supports a fundamental reality of solid values and undefined ideologies.

Hypostasis I, oil on canvas, 30x24cm, 2012

The Hypostasis represents one from three persons of the Holy Trinity. As a factual recognition, I have chosen the representation of Jesus, as it can be recognized in any society. Despite the factual changes in the society, where our civilization is based on religious factors, this model and complexity of culture as a common value, can be considered as unity of something much bigger then the society we live in. I am not saying that Christianity is the best solution for our spiritual existence, but I am suggesting that it could be just a transition between spirituality and religion.

Christianity has changed the understanding of Hypostasis and closed the values only to the aspects of Holy Trinity. The illumination of Jesus portraits reflects unstable philosophy of contemporary spirituality in the social climate. This influence can be used to explore those ideas in the Angel of Death. As we know from history, this nickname was given to Dr. Mengele during the Second World War, because he was determining the life or death of many people in the Auschwitz camp. The events from history, created a representation of the Angel of Death in the person of Dr. Mengele. He was a personification of everything that we can call evil.

The relationship between the personification of the Angel of Death and Hypostasis is as strong as the failure of both concepts in practice. It means that there is a strong need for change in order to create a better existence. This change could occur in individual opinions through the application of experimental rules and values in a society. Changes appear through a compilation of events, which are visible in Hypostasis and in the personification of death.

The integration of what we accept as precious values, like for instance, democracy, is a result of changes in a society and is transformed from one variation to another. This term is supported by those physical principles and those are defined intellectually.

Both the Hypostasis and the Angel of Death have numerous interpretations and expressions, which vary by culture. This personification of death, as well as a definition of a Hypostasis, exists in every culture.